Some questions for Shri E. Sreedharan about Bullet Trains and Standard Gauge

Admin

I am raising these issues out of serious concerns that a large number of proposals for Bullet Train and 200-250 kmph lines on SG at an astounding 8 to 12 times the average cost of 130-160 kmph lines on BG are being proposed on the basis of extremely dubious ridership estimates and the baseless assumption that speed greater than 160 kmph is not possible on the Indian BG

Alok Kumar Verma, #IRSE Retd., alumni IIT/ KGP and IIT/Delhi

Q 1: Why do you think that lines for the ultra high speed Bullet Trains (300-350 kmph) and the slower (200-250 kmph) high speed trains can’t be built on the Indian BG?

You would know that #Russia is building a 350 kmph line for its Broad Gauge (#BG) and #Spain has been running 200-250 kmph trains for decades on its BG which is about the same as our BG.

Q 2. Don’t you think that #DMRC gave a sky-high ridership estimate in the #DPR for the #Kerala Bullet Train line in 2015, considering that despite the fact that the population of the main cities in the #Thiruvananthapuram – #Kasaragod/#Kannur corridor is miniscule – just 15% of the cities in the #Mumbai – #Ahmedabad corridor ā€” yet the ridership #estimate by #DMRC for the #Kerala line is more than twice the MA line?

A #comparison of the salient features of the above #ridership estimates is given in the table below.

It is also vital to note that the stations proposed by #DMRC are in the outskirts, about 8 to 20 km away from the city center.

I am raising these issues out of serious concerns that a large number of proposals for #BulletTrain and 200-250 kmph lines on Standard Gauge (#SG) at an astounding 8 to 12 times the average cost of 130-160 kmph lines on BG are being proposed on the basis of extremely dubious ridership estimates and the baseless assumption that speed greater than 160 kmph is not possible on the Indian BG.

For the details of the ridership estimates by #DMRC and #KRDCL, that I wrote in January 2022.

Q3. Shouldn’t our focus be to build an integrated network on our BG?

Q4. Don’t you agree that the mistake of adopting Standard Gauge for the super costly Mumbai – Ahmedabad line in 2017 must not be repeated?

Q5. Wouldn’t it be wiser to first settle the vital issue of gauge, & equally important issue of a proper method for ridership estimation?

July 18, 2023